Medical School Blog 2

MEDICAL SCHOOL BLOG 2
Carson Hardy
NSU-COM M2
9-4-2017

I'm back! I've been a little busy this summer, but I promised i'd post a few pictures of some of the fish i've been blessed to catch this year. I have a collection of pictures and stories i'd like to share, so i'm gonna start from the beginning when I started documenting our trips. This first one was in December of 2017 out of Dania Beach, FL. My roommate, colleague, and friend B you see here on the right was raised in the Miami area and picked up spearfishing as a hobby 5 years ago or so. He's either a great guy and has been teaching me how to spearfish out of the kindness of his heart, or he needed a dive buddy so he doesn't accidentally kill himself. Either way, I have been very appreciative of the new skill i'm developing through him.

Our trips usually begin a few days before we get out on the water by checking the marine forecast for the perfect day. This is usually 1-2 foot seas with less than 15 knot winds, but it rarely happens and we end up going out in about 2-4 feet. Anyway, this day was VERY calm with great visibility and I speared my first Cero Mackerel!

We got to the second reef and dropped anchor from our kayak around noon, strapped our fins on, loaded our guns, and began to swim around the area. A friend told us that the mackerel were running around this time of year so we kept our head on a swivel as we settle down on the reef. We can only hold our breaths for about a minute and a half so our time at the bottom is limited, and some luck in necessary for us to get a catch. Regardless, B gets his little mac within the first 30 minutes or so, which I still get a kick out of considering how large he is. No matter how big the fish, he always makes them look illegal!

My day was going a little different, I only got a glimpse of these fish through the entire day. 4 hours into our trip I was exhausted and ready to head back to land. My legs were cramping, but I had one more dive in me. I took one last deep belly breath and approached the reef. I was peeking over a drop off and my diaphragm started to spasm telling me I was towards the end of my dive. I started to ascend to the surface when I saw this Cero running directly beneath me. I suddenly felt like I could hold my breath for another minute and dove back down behind him with my gun extended at his gills. He turned to check me out and I shot. KILL SHOT! Right through the spine, he gave a few flutters then went limp. I grabbed him by he gills and headed for the surface. I let out a WOO WOO when I breached knowing I had a decent sized fish. I chased for the boat making sure no sharks were gonna try and snag my prized possession. We put him in the ice chest, pulled up the anchor and headed back to the beach, successful and ready to get back in the water when the weather permitted.

As the blog progresses I'll have the food we make out of these fish, but some of these were from so long ago that I don't have the pictures anymore. Let me know what you think about the blog and how I could make it better!

THANK YOU FOR READING!